act of kindness

Eeebee, this post might annoy you and I apologise for that. I have severe, clinical depression and for a very long time I was physically crippled by it. This capacity of depression, to cause serious physical disablement, is not always obvious from reading about it.

I now take medicines and do my therapy. I'm not well, and I'm not particularly positive, but the treatment definitely helps and has saved my life many times. In therapy, I also learned pain management, which is a top useful skill to have. It reduces my need for painkillers.

There are some truly malicious people in this world, it's true. People who take pleasure in harming others tend to rise to power, too, a fact I find depressing! As well as the small percent (about 4%) of people who are downright 'evil', there's also a very large percentage who would hurt another person if it gave them an advantage, and even more who hurt others without thinking it through. You're right about this.

However, there are also billions of lovely folks who do think first, who go out of their way to do no harm, and to do some good. Most people are good, actually. Trouble is, thinking about the bad can take up so much of your mind that you don't really have enough space to notice all the goodness. Getting antidepressants and talking therapies can help you notice when you're not giving enough credit to the 'good' in life, and fix it.

Being exclusively focused on the bad in life is a definition of depression, that's why I agree you sound depressed. It is realistic to acknowledge all the bad in the world; what makes it an illness is the way depression focuses only on that, shutting out the good. I hope this makes some sense to you.

It's so good to hear you've been shown real kindness You deserve plenty of kindness, you know, from other people and also from yourself. Kindness is healing. It would be nice if you'd go to your GP and give them a chance to be kind, too.

If you're the same person that started this thread.. I just grrr! ... then the reason you feel kind people are very rare is probably because you've experienced (or are still experiencing) an abusive relationship. When you say 'I was slowly slepping down with all my life in general' and you've lost hope in people generally that sounds to me like the type of depression which is a common response in abuse victims. Hopelessness. Believing everyone is a bad person.

Other than this act of kindness out of the blue, are you receiving professional help?

I've been having a tough time recently, both emotionally and financially, with husband refusing to share his income to feed his own children.

Then last week, a friend who knew what was happening left the kids some money, enough that would feed them for 2 weeks (no I've let them keep it for them to spend) and another friend spent a whole day with me helping me to do something I should have done 15 years ago. Those 2 acts of kindness are what keeps me going through hard times.

What makes me happy most is to help others. It's nice some friends have taken the time to help me. Never forgotten. Yes kind people are rare now but there are some and they know who they are.

I'm afraid I don't agree with the 'hell in a handcart' sentiment. We may be individuals but collectively we are 'the world' or 'society'. You're kind, I'm kind, and I'm pretty sure most people are reasonably kind. Or at the very least it's just a minority that deliberately set out every morning to make other people miserable.